The Life of Paul Revere

This paper is an account of the life of Paul Revere, a skilled artisan who is best known to history for a gallant but uncompleted ride through the night at the start of the American Revolution. Unlike most of those who fomented the idea of breaking free of British control and forming an independent nation, Revere came from humble beginnings, had no college education, did not participate in formal politics, and, until he was immortalized in a poem well after his death, had been largely forgotten by history. Yet he represents the working person of his times, without whose enthusiastic support and commitment revolution would have been impossible.

Paul Revere was baptized on January 1, 1735, indicating that he was probably born the day before. He was the son of a French immigrant driven out of his native country during Louis XIV's purge of Protestantism. That immigrant, Apollos Rivoire, eventually arrived in the New World, where he apprenticed with a silversmith, married a local girl, and began a family. Paul followed in his father's footsteps, learning the trade. When his father died, Paul took over as head of the family.

He was married twice, first to Sara Orne, who bore him eight children and died in the spring of 1773. That fall, he married Rachel Walker, who bore another eight children. Seven of Revere's 16 children died before reaching adulthood, a common occurrence at the time. At another place and time, Paul Revere might have made his mark with his silver w

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he strength of the wrists are carefully recorded. In his left he hold one of those pear-shaped tea-pots he was making during the seventeen-sixties. The nails on that hand are broken to the quick and ragged as an artisan's hands are apt to be . . . This is the Paul Revere of the Stamp Act days, of the Sons of Liberty, the Massacre and the Tea-Party, and the many rides (109). The portrait is unlike most of Copley's other works in showing a working-class artisan in his shop, rather than a high-born gentleman surrounded by the trappings of privilege. Paul Revere is one of the few men prominent in the revolution in Boston who was not a member of the upper class; as such, "Paul was admitted to their society because they wished sympathy of the large artisan class with whom he was immensely popular, and he represented an important point of view" (Forbes 54). As Forbes observes, "It took all sorts and kinds to make a revolution" (116), and Revere was especially significant because he was one of the few representatives of the majority of the population. Revere's acceptance by the "gentlemen" of his time was largely the result of his forthright personality. Forbes notes, "A nice balance between good sense and boldness characterized

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